"...Mother Arak’Tess, are you alright?" One of my daughters helps walk. I am very old now, so moving has started to beco difficult; my carapace is no longer as mobile as it once was.
"Yes, daughter... I’m just a little tired..." It has been 100,000 years since I had my children, so it makes sense that I am nearing death. I am not strong enough to escape it.
’I suppose I’ve had a good life... I managed to reach level 40 million... and I had many children...’ I move carefully through the tunnels with one of my daughters following .
"How is the city construction going?" I ask curiously. My daughters have been doing everything; I can’t even go out to hunt anymore. I am too tired and weak to hunt now that my body is at its limit.
"It’s going very well, Mother!! We are building a new tunnel network and—"
"MOTHER!!! Mother! Mother Arak’Tess!!" One of my daughters cos rushing quickly through the tunnels. She has a terrified expression and runs to with tears in her eyes.
"What is it?" I ask as she stops in front of .
"A powerful invader has appeared. She’s killing all my sisters who try to fight her with just one blow and—"
CRACK
A hand pierces through the ceiling, crushing my daughter. My eyes widen as an aura floods the underground. My body trembles with indescribable fear, my heart races, and I gasp, unable to breathe properly.
"..." The pale hand moves and grabs , pulling out of the underground while I don’t react. I am yanked outside and see a bizarre creature. The power she emits leaves silent.
"[Do you rember ? It took a while, but I found you...]" She speaks, gesturing with three of her arms while holding with the other, as if I were a re insect.
"I-I don’t know who you are. I-I don’t believe I’ve ever t anything so strong..." I say, terrified of this thing. I would rember encountering sothing so frightening in the past if I had seen it before. The fear she generates isn’t the kind you can forget.
"[...How many years has it been since you had your first children?]" She asks a strange question.
"A-About 112,000 years..." It’s been a long ti. I was lucky back then; I managed to reproduce a lot and have many children to help .
"[...I see... you’ve grown stronger, but you seem more fragile. Your appearance has hardly changed, yet you still seem old. Are you near your limit?]" she asks with that distorted voice that seems to co from everywhere. The giant eye behind her staring at doesn’t give the courage to lie.
"Y-Yes, I-I am near my limit. I will probably self-destruct in a few years... at m-most 100 years..."
"[What is your level?]"
"40 m-million..." I say, wondering why she wants to know. I am obviously much weaker than her, and even reaching that level 40 million was very difficult for .
"[You know I’m going to kill you, don’t you?]"
"..."
"[You really can’t rember ? Have I changed that much from your perspective?]"
"I-I really don’t know..."
"[...What a pity... I found you too late. You don’t seem afraid of being killed. Regrettable. If I had found you earlier, you would have been afraid of death, and I could have had so fun...]"
"[But it’s fine. I’ll just destroy everything you’ve built.]"
"W-What do you an?! W-Wait!!—"
"[[Hell Gate]]" She uses so kind of magic, and I see a small black sphere appearing in the sky. This thing holding uses both hands to grip like a cage. Soon, I feel an imnse magical fluctuation, and everything around is obliterated, opening a vast crater stretching beyond the horizon.
It’s quick, and it completely destroyed the city I built with my children. This makes cry a little. It was years of dedication with my children to build all of this.
"..."
"[So you can cry?]" The entity holds with just one hand again after protecting from the attack she herself made.
"W-Why did you do that? If you wanted revenge, you didn’t need to kill all my children!!!" I say with a tearful tone, my tears streaming down my face.
"[Do you know what the Apocalypse is? The apocalypse is the end and the beginning of sothing new. Yet it is also a cycle, where the new thing will also reach its end and again be replaced by sothing new.]"
"[You got what you wanted. You had children. You had a ’happy’ life with what you built. You gained power and a city of your own. And I congratulate you for living so long. However, everything in the universe has a price. You took advantage of a life that wasn’t yours, so I have co to collect the price.]"
"[This is no longer your ’new.’ This is just your pathetic ’end’—the price of your wrong choices.]"
"I-If you’re going to kill , you could have killed before destroying everything I built!! It was hundreds of thousands of years of hard work!!!" All my effort was thrown away! She has no idea how hard I worked to build this city she just wiped out as if it were nothing.
"[Yes, I bet you did. You always seed quite focused and hardworking, like beavers building a dam... but even the strongest dam will one day collapse, destroying the beavers’ work.]"
"I don’t even know what the fuck a beaver is!!"
"[Yelling at ? It seems you’ve lost your fear of death.]"
"GYAAA!" She tears off the top part of my carapace. I look back and see the exposed, pulsing flesh. Even the air causes pain, the burning making cry more. I’m not as resistant to pain as I was in the past.
"[A pity that you can’t recognize ... but I want to do one last test before I kill you...]" She uses one of her four arms and runs a finger over her neck, collecting so of that black liquid she produces. Then she drips it onto the exposed flesh of my body.
"..."
"AAAAHHHHHHHHH!!! AHAHHHHHHHHH!!!!" I feel imnse pain, falling into her hand and writhing. That black sli seems to expand, devouring my body from within.
"[Don’t scream so much. How unnecessary. I think that’s enough. I’m not in the mood to waste ti on you. I realized the futility of torturing a being like you who rely acts like an animal.]" She squeezes her hand, beginning to crush . I, who am far too weak, cannot stop her. I can hear the cracking, my carapace bursting under the absurd pressure.
The pain becoming unbearable, she squeezes so slowly it’s an agonizing torture as the space runs out, until she stops for a second, the space barely allowing to stay alive.
"[I am Pandora. The sa Pandora you used as an incubator for your children. I ca to collect the price for the misuse of my body or sothing like that. I just want you to rember this fact before your death.]"
"!!!" Before I have ti to say anything, she squeezes her hand forcefully to crush once and for all with an agonizing sound of being pulverized.
...
...
...
"So!! Who the hell is going to explain this!!!" I say with pure hatred. I see my dear daughter Azazel chained to a wall, hidden in a hard-to-access basent, while that bitch Eclipsya feeds her with her fingers.
"Mother Grimm... it’s not as bad as it looks!! Big sis Eclipsya kidnapped to take care of !! She feeds , bathes , changes my clothes, tells stories, studies with !! All while I’m chained up! Having a bed bath is fun!!" Azazel says with a stupid smile.
"..." I approach her and break the chains with my hands, but I see the manacles on her arms are gone, so it must be so magic. I end up looking at Eclipsya, who clicks her tongue at .
"You pest!! You think you can steal my daughter and get away with it?! Especially for a whole week!!!"
"My apologies for the inconvenience, ’Grimm’. I didn’t think it would turn out like this," she says with sarcasm, dragging out my na in a purposely irritating way.
"I should break your neck and—"
"Mother Grimm!! You can’t hurt big sis Eclipsya!! Or else I’ll get really angry!! A-and I won’t talk to you anymore!" Azazel says with conviction, stepping in front of , knowing I have a weak spot for her.
"!!!!"
"..." I growl at Eclipsya, who gives a smile, as if she’s won sothing from this. I so want to destroy that bitch’s smug little smile.
"I won’t hurt her, daughter... it was just a figure of speech... co with , and we’ll have a long talk..." I take Azazel’s hand and start pulling her.
"Your mother wants to talk to you too, Eclipsya. It’s about your status. She seems quite bothered by your titles in particular, and by your suspicious magics."
"H-Hey!! You saw our statuses!" she says angrily. I smile at this damned incestuous girl who wants to steal my daughter from .
"Of course we saw them. You’re all far too young for real responsibilities!! So your teacher handed them to Elena, who by obligation handed them to us, your mothers..."
"Y-You damn! You stole those papers! I bet Elena wouldn’t give my status to you, only to Mother Tsukuyomi!!" She hits the nail on the head. Each mother only received her own daughter’s status, not the others’, but I took them all to have a look.
Besides, Zephyra, who received Lycoris’s Status, looked at it for a few seconds and then tore the paper to shreds. And Delphina was delighted with her daughter’s abilities.
"You have no proof. Now, if you’ll excuse ." I pick up my daughter and lift her, carrying her in my arms, even though she has grown too big to be held like a child.
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